The condition of limited space in present housing has created the need for furniture which uses minimal floor space. To meet this need, modular furniture has been developed which can be assembled to create space-saving units in limited spaces while still affording the user the option of separating or rearranging the furniture in additional positions when the housing arrangements allow more spacious use. Modular furniture is particularly useful in bedrooms where the use of space-saving furniture provides sleeping space for more than one person in a single room.
A standard bunk bed system provides extra space by allowing conventional beds to be stacked one on top of the other, providing individual sleeping areas with the same room while still providing spacious floor area. The conventional bunk bed system is widely used; however, it is limited to positioning the beds only as vertically stacked in parallel. Some perpendicular bunk bed systems have been developed, but the stacking devices have been rather permanently attached and have not provided for easy disassembly and storage of the stacking mechanism.
It is desirable to provide room occupants with the option of stacking modular beds in other positions not possible with conventional bunk beds, in order to allow the occupants some versatility and choice in arranging a bedroom to fit their desires and needs. Supplying the desires and needs of multiple individuals to have more versatility is of particular importance in situations such as college or other dormitory housing where dwellings are created to house large numbers of students in minimal space. Dormitory housing provides living quarters for hundreds of students in a single building by combining the sleeping area and the living area of multiple students into one room. As a result, it becomes necessary to arrange the room in order to accommodate multiple beds and additional furniture. The fluctuation of new residents in the rooms each school year makes it desirable to have bed stacking furniture comprise only a few pieces that are easy and safe to assemble and store, thus limiting the number of pieces capable of being lost and furniture which is easy and convenient to store.
An object of the present invention is to provide a bunk bed system that allows the user to selectively position the beds as unstacked or stacked as a regular bunk bed or as a perpendicular bunk bed system and to provide a stacking device that is storable in the same room with little loss of space when the stacking device is not being used.